Letters

Too Many Journals? Wheat from Chaff? Einstein's Office Regarding Eugene Garfield’s stalwart defense of the proliferation of scientific journals (March 7, 1988, p. 11): It would make as much sense for Garfield to argue otherwise as it would for the Pentagon to insist that its budget is overfed. Journals are meat and potatoes to scientific commerce, just as advertisements are to retail business and TV spots to politics. Quality control has nothing to do with it. William R. Hoffm

Written byWilliam Hoffman

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Regarding Eugene Garfield’s stalwart defense of the proliferation of scientific journals (March 7, 1988, p. 11): It would make as much sense for Garfield to argue otherwise as it would for the Pentagon to insist that its budget is overfed.

Journals are meat and potatoes to scientific commerce, just as advertisements are to retail business and TV spots to politics. Quality control has nothing to do with it.

William R. Hoffman
1848 Selby Ave.
St. Paul, MN 55104

With all due respect, I take issue with Eugene Garfield’s curt dismissal of recent provocative reports about the proliferation of journals.

I share with many of my colleagues a great concern about the consequences of the explosion in published articles that has occurred over the last several years. There are two reasons why I find the huge volume of scientific literature distressing. First, Garfield may not find it taxing to ...

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